NEWS: Ukranian Military Depot Explodes

Novobogdanovka - Reports vary, but indicate that five people have died and nine suffered injuries when a fire caused an military storage depot for ammunition and various missiles to explode, including Grad missiles with a range of 20-km. Explosions are still being reported. At this point, human error is being blamed for the accident. Residential area's surrounding the base are reported severely damaged, or on fire and littered with debris, looking like a war zone. Up to 10,000 people have been evacuated.

The blaze is unlikely to be extinguished anytime soon, as rockets, ammunition and shrapnel are still raining down a 10-km (six-mile) radius, specialist rescue teams or vehicles are unable to get close to the scene. Armored vehicles will try to bring fire-fighting equipment closer to the site. Russia will be sending a team of specialists to the region, the US has also offered help.

The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, located at a distance of 40-km from the disaster site, was put on alert. Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has assured the public that it's out of danger.

The Greater Anatol-Melitopol gas pipeline, two kilometers from the blast site also caught fire. Flames from the pipeline are said to reach a height of 40 to 50 meters.

BBC

Spokesman for the state gas monopoly Naftohaz Dmytro Marunych said a Grad missile hit a natural-gas pipeline in the area, cutting off all gas supplies to the nearby city of Melitopol.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Yevhen Marchuk admitted: "Such fires cannot be extinguished."

�A fire broke out at Defense Ministry warehouses near Novobohdanivka village, where large amounts of ammunition were stored. The ammunition then detonated,� ministry spokesman Oleh Oleksandriv told Reuters.

Related Sources:
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The Russia Journal

This can be seen as an indicator of the poor state of the ex-USSR's armies and their facilities, in my opinion.

[Edited on 5-7-2004 by Valhall]

More Related News:
REUTERS - Ukraine Arms Dump Blasts Hurl Shrapnel, Five Dead
channelnewsasia.com - Five dead in huge Ukraine arms depot blaze

Images:




(images originate from various sources mentioned)


[Edited on 7-5-2004 by Hoaks]

I sure hope there was nothing of a nuclear nature in there. The would make for one hell of a dirty bomb.

More Related News & Images:

ITAR-TASS - Munitions depot explodes in Ukraine's Zaporozhye region (06.05.2004)
ITAR-TASS - Five die in Ukraine ammunition depots fire (07.05.2004)
ITAR-TASS - Heavy rain helps localise fire at arms depots in Ukaine (08.05.2004)
�There are no and could be no chemical, nuclear, explosive substances or ammonia in the depots,�Vice-Prime Minister Andrei Klyuyev said.

�Only combat ordnance with gunpowder charges were stored at the depots,� Klyuyev said.

�The situation is under control and it seems that the fire is abating. There are already signs of slow fire. Explosions have become less frequent. While last evening they occurred every four to five seconds, by Friday evening there were no more than 18 explosions per minute,� he said.

Klyuyev assured the population that �the explosions do not pose a threat of radioactive or chemical contamination�.

Ukraine has accepted Russia�s help in dealing with the incident but said it did not need any other outside assistance. �We have accepted help from Russians who arrived in the settlement of Mirnoye today where a field camp is set up,� Defence Minister Yevgeny Marchuk said on national television.

The (US) Defence Ministry press service told Itar-Tass that 11 mine-clearing teams could be used in the operation, seven of them had already arrived at the site, as well as up to 10 pieces of heavy machinery and two fire-fighting tanks.


(images from ITAR-TASS)

MOSNEWS.com - Major Russian Highway Sealed Off After Arms Depot Explosion (06.05.2004)
MOSNEWS.com - Russian Military Called In to Extinguish Depot Fire In Ukraine (07.05.2004)
A Russian An-26 jet with a group of GRAU experts on board took off from the Chkalovsky Airport near Moscow on Friday morning, a source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax. According to the source, the team includes over 20 experts, headed by laboratory chief Igor Shirokov.

Taipei Times - Fires rage out of control in Ukraine arsenal (08.05.2004)
The arsenal, known as Ammunition Depot 275, contains Uragan, Smerch and Grad missiles, ITAR-Tass said. Interfax quoted Marchuk as saying that Ukraine had inherited 184 such arsenals from the Soviet Union.

Marchuk said that the arsenal contained more than twice as many armaments as its official capacity, Interfax reported. The explosion sent some rockets flying as far as 6km, he said.

Schools were closed in the city of Melitopol, the largest settlement in the region, after authorities declared a state of emergency and urged people to stay indoors. A key railway line linking Moscow and the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea was cut off.

[Edited on 8-5-2004 by Hoaks]

ukraine cant do anything right without russia, they are just another 3rd world #hole now.